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Three Companies that Took Content Marketing Above and Beyond

May 7, 2013

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By: Bradley Derringer

Blogger

TechBreach

If you’re a freelancer or small business owner, by now you most likely know the importance of marketing your company to obtain new customers and to bring internet users back to your website. Content marketing, the creation of new content to draw an audience, allows you to communicate directly with your audience, and if your company focuses on publishing great content that is spread across multiple topics, new customers will flock to you. Utilizing blogging, tweeting and general posting will create brand awareness, but also help build links, which allow Google’s pagerank algorithm to deem your website as relevant and credible. If you’re in the market for a new SEO and marketing strategy, here are three companies that took content marketing to a whole new level.

American Express

Implementing one of the most unique marketing campaigns to date, American Express is the first credit card company – to my knowledge – that has transformed itself into a media company. By launching OpenForum.com, AmEx has turned its money expertise into content that calls for action amongst entrepreneurs.

Offering tools for small business owners (especially for those who use American Express), Open Forum is dedicated to housing detailed and informative information regarding how to best run a business. Best of all, the content produced on Open Forum encourages the reader to follow a plan of action.

Informative content is provided by publishers such as Inc. Magazine, but also allows for posting by guest writers and in-house writers. Whether you’re logging in at midnight or noon, you’re almost guaranteed to find new, useful information that will help you build your company even further.

Mint

Launched in 2006, Mint was launched as a personal finance website to help everyday people manage their spending habits through the use of its personal finance software. Very quickly, Mint became a legitimate competitor of Quicken, and in 2009, the company became the leader in the online personal finance industry, prompting Intuit to purchase the company and its site for $170 million.

Thanks to an aggressive content marketing strategy, Mint was able to successfully brand its services. While many companies were updating their blogs every few months, Mint went crazy with its MintLife blog, posting regularly enough to draw a large audience to its frequent updates. Dedicated to its blog, Mint hired a full-time editorial staff and a large number of freelance writers to build MintLife into one of the premier finance blogs online.

Using infographics, slideshows, videos, news and financial tips, Mint successfully launched its content marketing strategy, and held its content to strict editorial guidelines in the process. After investing time promoting itself on Digg and Reddit, internet users were able to see Mint’s regular, high-quality content, leading to communities trusting Mint as a reliable source. Afterward, Mint was able to leverage its credibility to convert readers into customers.

Hubspot

The all-inclusive marketing software platform claiming to generate over 500,000 leads per month, Hubspot certainly knows the value of quality content for inbound marketing purposes. Producing case studies, podcasts, webinars and ebooks for its audience, Hubspot does all it can to educate its users about their respective industries.

With this information, users can navigate the Hubspot platform efficiently; all while Hubspot gains new customers through its blog publications. With over 4,000 active customers, Hubspot acquires new customers through inbound leads and its content marketing strategy. Hubspot has a fairly clear marketing campaign.

The first step is to produce content that leaves the reader believing that Hubspot is an innovator. Next, Hubspot focused on publishing diverse article topics, preventing itself from becoming confined to a singular topic. Lastly, Hubspot has made sure to not just write about itself, but creates content that will help its audience, regardless of whether they desire more information about everything it has to offer or a third-party company that can provide Hubspot users with new software that will help them achieve their business goals.

So What?

With all that said, what does this mean, and how can we benefit? Publishing tools have made branded content a necessity in the digital realm. Five years ago, you could have skated by simply by providing customers with a functioning website. However, as Google updates its algorithms and competition grows even fiercer, your company may not be able to survive for long without an effective publisher and content marketing campaign.